Improvement in photography



UNITED STATES PATENT Orrron.

SAMUEL ANDERSON, OF NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.

IMPROVEMENT lN PHOTOGRAPHY.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent N0. 146,857, dated January .27, 1874 application filed August 21, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL ANDERSON, of the city of New Orleans, parish of Orleans and State of Louisiana, have made certain new and useful Improvements in the Art of taking Photographic Pictures; and I hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and correct description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying specimen of a picture taken by my improved process.

My improvement relates more especially to that branch of the photographic art which relates to the production of those pictures technically known as sun-pearls, wherein the effect of natural colors, or rather the usual colors existing in the face of the person whence the picture was taken, are perfectly imitated. My improvement consists mainly in the treatment of the paper upon which the picture has already been taken so as to render the same transparent, which result is attained by a process which I will now describe in connection with a description of the entire process by which my improved pictures are produced.

The picture is first printed upon plain salted paper, whereupon it is painted in transparent water-colors,which colors only can be employed for such purposes. The picture thus prepared is then immersed in alcohol, where it may remain for a shorter or longer period of time, the period of time being immaterial. \Vhen taken from the alcohol, it is spread or laid smoothly down upon plate-glass which has been previously coated with a thick solution of gum-arabic. The paper will then become completely saturated with the alcohol and gum-arabic combined, and will at the same time adhere tenaciously to the plate-glass surface upon which it is placed. The paper thus saturated is subjected to a rolling process, to the end of expelling therefrom all air-bubbles and a portion of the gum-arabic.

The means employed for the accomplishment of this object consists of a cylindrical glass rod applied, by the hand, to the surface of the paper, and rolled thereupon until the said pa per has become perfectly transparent, and, when thoroughly dry, it is ground off with sand paper, and finally rubbed down with pumice-stone until the paper is well polished, and at the same time has assumed a somewhat translucent or groundglass appearance when viewed from the back of the picture. A thin glass is then placed upon the back of the picture thus finished, and the process is complete. Should it, however, be desired to give greater tone and depth to the picture, a second picture, plainly finished or painted, as may be desired, is placed exactly behind the picture finished by my improved process, and a picture is produced which for beauty of natural colors, for beauty of finish, and for durability, cannot be equaled, much less excelled, by any picture executed by any other process known in the art of photography.

I do not claim the whole process above described; but

What I do claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The process herein described of rendering what is technically known as salted paper, upon which a photographic picture has been produced, and afterward painted, to the end of making the same transparent or translucent, substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

2. Photographic pictures produced by the process hereinbefore described.

S. ANDERSON.

\Vitnesses H. N. JENKINS, J. .0. HUBBELL. 

